GLOBAL WARMING

Safe at the Mall

The privilege of cold air

A fan for the desktop I used last week when I was writing and food for the brain. My photo.

We don’t have AC at home. After reading so many stories about ACs, I’ve come to realize that apparently not having one is a European thing. And yet last week the news in Holland said AC installers can’t keep up with demand.

Last year we went to visit one of my husband’s daughter in the north of Holland. She lives with her four-year-old son and likes gadgets. What doesn’t she have?. It was winter, and she showed us her AC. I was surprised, AC in the north? This girl’s getting carried away. But then she demonstrated that it also heats, and since she’d installed a heat pump, apparently it doesn’t run up the energy bill.

I haven’t seen many home ACs around here. Last week, during seven days of 35 to 40 degrees Celsius, we closed everything up and opened it all at night. We put a fan in the bedroom and slept fine. I always sleep fine.

Of everywhere I’ve lived, only in Dhaka did we have AC, it came with the houses. Every room had one. And every house with AC had a diesel generator. Diesel was never in short supply, to us but sometimes, scarce and everyone had to queue to get it. And when the generator kicked on, it made an infernal racket, which stopped the moment the power came back.

Which means that whoever has AC is privileged. In a city, in a country like Bangladesh, with so much poverty and so much economic gap in daily life, owning your own AC is more than a cooling system: it’s a social statement.

That bothered me. But we used it. Not around the clock, but mainly so we could sleep, and the kids could sleep and so we could sleep.

The rest of the time I went from place to place by bicycle, so I didn’t make use of the privilege of riding around in air-conditioned Mitsubishi Pajeros either. I didn’t want to.

I always thought: if they can do it, the Bengalis, so can I. You learn. The body adapts, drinks more water, drinks tea… I kept telling myself that if the Bedouins can live in the desert without AC, they must know something about regulating heat, in the body and in the surroundings. I changed how I dressed, my rhythms, the food.

Now, in Holland. My husband can’t stand the heat. He can’t sleep like that. And he’s twelve years older than me. So, for his sake, if we need AC, we’ll get an AC. In Italy, we would have one. But sleeping in a freezer isn’t my thing, I’ll leave that to Walt Disney.

A few months ago, my mother sent me a message from Argentina, in the middle of a sustained 40 degrees. She said: “I’m at the mall. I came because there’s AC here. They don’t set it very high, but it’s more bearable than at home.” My mother is almost 90, and people that age suffer badly from the heat. She has an AC but the bills, she cannot run it all day… So, if she managed to get herself to the mall, hallelujah. She’s also a very fit woman.

So, fine, let’s turn it on, then. For the people I love: my kids, my mother, my husband’s daughter and her son. In the meantime, I’ve got a flamenco fan, the folding kind, so for now I’m fanning myself, olé. I’ll put up with the AC to offset the carbon emissions. Until I can’t anymore.

PS: What I want is the secret of my hairy Nepali dog. How does she stand that thick coat, lying there under the burning sun?

Thanks for reading my story.

This is my unplanned answer to Lynn L. Alexander’s prompt: Air Conditioning Appreciation Day! I couldn’t live without air conditioning. Could you? Are you a lover or hater of AC?

I got really inspired by so many cool stories!

Adrienne Beaumont

[embed]Aircon Is Too Expensive For Home Use In shopping centres, it’s a godsendmedium.com

Carole Olsen

[embed]No Joking About Air-Conditioning. I’m Not a Fan Actually, all dumb jokes aside, I love air conditioningmedium.com

Radhika Ghosh, I know what you mean!

[embed]Cool, Calm and Grateful The little luxury that brought me peacemedium.com

Livvy Skelton-Price

[embed]Air Con Is A Privilege I love the stuffmedium.com

Sharon Johnson

[embed]Are you a Fan or Air Conditioning? Oh, that’s are you a fan of air conditioning?medium.com

Noriko Yanyan

[embed]We Die Without AC But also die because of ACmedium.com